In a briefing, she stressed: “There is no indication of aliens or extraterrestrial activity with these recent shootdowns. It was important we say it from here, because we have heard a lot about it”.

The US Army shot down three aerial devices in recent days: the first last Friday, while flying over Alaska at high altitude; another cylindrical north of Canada; and a third one over Lake Huron.

Glen VanHerck, Pentagon commander, caused a sensation on Sunday when he was asked if the authorities ruled out the possibility that the devices found were related to extraterrestrials, detailed newspaper The Hill.

“I’ll let the intelligence and counterintelligence community find out. At this time I have not ruled out anything,” the source said.

Until now, officials in the administration of President Joe Biden have provided limited details about the objects, in part because the weather and the way in which they were brought down made it difficult to recover them, the newspaper recalled.

John Kirby, a White House Homeland Security spokesman, said authorities are trying to get more information about the computers, which could be linked to a private company or research institution.

The detection of those devices came a week after US warplanes shot down a Chinese research balloon that accidentally entered US airspace, prompting the White House to launch accusations of alleged espionage.

As clarified by the Beijing Ministry of Foreign Affairs, this was a civilian device that carried out meteorological investigations and deviated from the scheduled route due to bad weather and its poor ability to self-direct.

China filed a protest with government institutions in this country rejecting the shooting down of its balloon and urged Washington to refrain from further exacerbating a situation that strained bilateral ties.

Authorities here stated that the recent objects differ from the Chinese balloon, as they flew lower and were smaller.

ef/oda/cgc